The Taxi Driver

Today God set me up again... but it wasn't like the ones where i would minister to other people.. today's divine appointment was different.. i was the one who was in for a lesson.. and it came through the most unlikely of sources.. believe it or not, i met a prophetic taxi driver!

and so today i woke up from my afternoon nap in a hurry... my mom was going out of town and i was contemplating whether or not to send her to the airport.. i decided earlier that day that i would but with the nice bed around things began to felt different.. after all, what else is there to see at the airport anyway?? but somehow i just felt i should go so i made the split second decision to tag along with my mom just as she was about to leave the house...

so we boarded the taxi that was to take us there.. and there was this nice Chinese man who was the driver.. what first struck me was his fluent command of English.. he seemed to be quite old but he was really friendly and my mom struck up a conversation with him.. pretty soon, he was telling us his story, his testimony.. and i sat there in silence, contemplating the lessons that i was to learn from this taxi driver.. each person has his own testimony to tell and what better way could God humble an arrogant yaya preacher wannabe like myself through a testimony of a txi driver? the supposed member of the lower rungs of Singapore society? i had much to learn... This is his story...

He was a Christian when he was young, highly active in Youth For Christ until he went to army where he became a bad boy.. he fell away from God and backslided for 35 years... I soon found out where he learned his great English.. he was a very educated man, a high-flier during those 35 years.. he was regional director of an American company.. after he had built it up, he decided to start his own company and he was a self-proclaimed LKY of the business world because of his perfectionism and his willingness to cut every employee that doesn't perform.

He was so self-driven that when God sent him a warning signal during the Asian financial crisis, he used his own power to pull himself through and even expand his company into other places in the region.. his friend then urged him to turn back to God during the financial crisis in 1997 but he told him that he didn't believe in God anymore...

He was well-respected in his field.. when my mom asked if he was a doctor, he replied that he was more than a doctor... doctors would get to treat 200 spine surgeries a year.. he would do 2000... and those are really delicate operations.. he received training in America but he surpassed even that initial knowledge so that he was called upon to train others in such procedures.. in fact, many leaders in the field respected him such that when he wanted to just step into the operating theatre to do an operation himself, they allowed him.. whenever he would present something new in the medical field, he had the dean of NUH's ears.. the dean would sit right in front of him to hear him out...

Needless to say, he was a high-flier... he used to sit in business class on plane rides and he was used to being chauffeured around... but now, there he was driving a taxi chauffeuring others...

You see, God didn't give up on him... throughout his 35 years of backsliding and rejecting God, God in His mercy stopped him in his tracks and humbled him...

SARS came to Singapore in 2003 and within a few months he went bankrupt.. he tried to hold it out on his own for a few months but his operating costs for his company went to 50-60 thousand a month.. by the eighth month, he surrendered. And God had to orchestrate that incident so that he could once again turn back to Him, serve Him and know Him.. he knew that he had come to the end of himself.. he couldn't depend on himself anymore.. God brought him to his knees until he finally surrendered.. and after 35 years he was found once again...

The taxi i rode today was filled with a sense of God.. i knew that i was in the right place at the right time and that God had a reason for wanting me to be there so that i could learn from this man's story.. he was so real.. he was telling us that at first it was hard being a taxi driver.. he did feel the sense of humiliation.. he even told us that sometimes, he used to cry when he was alone in the taxi.. but he also told us of the joy that he had that no matter what happened, God was with him through it all and that he had the joy to pull through despite all the loss and devastation..

He was then telling us of how God would speak to him in the taxi telling him which passengers to pick and which to avoid.. he would discern those whose spirits are not right so as to avoid conflict with them in the taxi.. when he would disobey Holy Spirit's prompting, then He would realise the wisdom of it cos he would be left silently praying that God would take charge of the unruly passenger... Sometimes, God intercepts his human logic by telling him to turn to places where there would not be any passengers waiting otherwise... but God would provide him one and he would be left with a testimony and a sense of how God really takes care of his needs! And i knew that our encounter with him that evening was really a divine appointment cos he was supposed to be off duty (cos it's CNY for crying out loud!).. but he felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit to answer the request for a taxi.. and God set us up with him to hear his humble testimony... God set us up...

One of the things i learned through all this is that it doesn't matter what you have on paper.. many of you out there may spend a good time of your lives trying to improve your grades or chase after your careers and neglect God.. and you may very well climb up the corporate ladder on your own strength.. but be warned that you may not stay there for long.. God in His mercy might get you! listen.. that thing you have on your paper is useless.. it is God who orders the lives of men and we are but dust in light of his will and unsearchable ways.. you may think you are somebody.. but think again... no matter how much you think that piece of paper is worth, it won't measure up to the far exceeding greatness of knowing God.. it's not too late for you to think about how you're living your life in the light of eternity and whether you're spending much of your life trying to chase after things that are really worthless...

which brings me to my next point... you may think that you have all that you want having a successful career, a great reputation, a stable income.. but do you have God? when do you think my taxi driver friend was most satisfied? Surely it was better driving a cab and enjoying the sweet fellowship of the Holy Spirit literally through every journey than having a great career but God not having a place in your life... which situation do you think is more rewarding? which situation do you think is more satisfying? which situation do you think best fulfills the innermost needs of the soul of man, that God-shaped void that all have been created with? there is only one Solution...

The consolation is, wherever you are, no matter how far away you have gone, God is always on a mission to get you back.. and He won't stop... 35 years cant keep Him away... nothing in your life is too hard to forgive or too shameful for his love to cover... He'll make you new again.. it's not too late to turn back... :)

God bless! ;)